Natural Blues
by Marik Kurakashi
Summary: In a world winding down, Ichigo Kurosaki falls head first into the adventure of several lifetimes. "When everything is extraordinary, life is just extra ordinary."
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Living in that 21st Century, writing something mean for it, do it betta than anybody you seen do it.

Author note: It's time to get into Bleach y'all. Gonna have some fun, do something serious for everyone to read. We'll see how it goes from here on out. It's gonna get crazy up in here!

Natural Blues  
>Chapter 1 Say Goodbye to My Heart Tonight<p>

by Marik Kurakashi

It was pre-dawn when Ichigo Kurosaki left his family's clinic for school. In terms of distance, it really wasn't that far from home, but the direct route was cut off to him for his purported safety. With a smooth practiced motion, the fifteen year old with blond hair unlocked the gate into the protection tunnels and stepped in, closing it without even needing to look. Though there had been no news of an attack or even an outbreak of Hollow activity, restless ghosts and other potentially harmful spiritual entities were still on the loose.

With a deep breath, Ichigo ran his hand along the cold stone construct, feeling the thrum of the reiryoku pulsing beneath its pristine surface. Though he had grown up with this structure in front of his home, he couldn't get used to the odd melange of colors that swirled on the surface. Another breath taken and the early morning chill burned in his lungs and sharpened his focus. There was a test today, plus he needed to stop by that cute little pastry shop that ran along his elongated path to school for breakfast.

He didn't worry about ghost attacks, he just wanted his strawberry bun dammit.

"For our protection," he muttered derisively under his breath, knowing that he'd be alone until he reached the shop. "Why don't they seal the rip or whatever it is instead of us?"

The taciturn teen was of course referring to the hole in reality that had opened eleven years ago, from whence horrible demonic like monsters called hollows began spilling forth. The beings who called themselves Shinigami emerged shortly after and waged a bloody war that lasted two whole years. The casualties on the human front had be surprisingly short, but the Shinigami had taken a massive hit to their ranks and could only form a defensive perimeter and retreat to their 'Soul Society' to ponder up a solution.

A month later, they came up with the Soul Reaper initiative, taking lower ranked Shinigami and members of the surrounding populous to fill out what would be called The Earthside Gotei 13, a mirror body of the one they had in Soul Society. They built the 13 squad towers and sectioned off the neighboring area to each squad. For Karakura-cho, they were watched over by Squad 13, who seemed to be a little too stuffy in their desire to protect them.

Or so Ichigo would complain years later to his friends.

Kurosaki had reached his destination and skillfully, he liked a little flair now and then, popped open the gate and slipped over to the pastry shop. A delectable and altogether wondrous aroma hit his nose in just the right way, filling the somewhat grumpy teen with a rare feeling of joy. With this note of enthusiasm, Ichigo yanked open the door and slipped inside.

"Obasan, a sweet bean jam bun and a creampuff!" Came the call of the red haired girl directly in front of the counter. She turned her head a bit as she waited for her order to be filled, revealing her glasses with a stylish red frame. "Ah, I see you're up early Strawberry!"

"Don't call me that, Honsho." He said tepidly, not wanting to ruin his mood arguing about it.

"I'm just messing with you Kurosaki." She laughed and smiled at him. Her name was Chizuru Honsho and was attending the same school, in the same class no less, as Kurosaki was.

"It's fine," he sighed because she easily deflected the slight ire with an uncaring backhand. "I get enough from the gangsters and queens at school."

"It's tough being the best fighter at school isn't it?" She commented while paying for her breakfast. "Well, male fighter anyways." She waved to the owner and moved aside.

"Two strawberry buns please." Ichigo requested, before turning to continue talking to his classmate. "With the amount of sweets you eat, I'm surprised you haven't gotten fat yet."

"It's okay, I have a secret weapon against fat." Chizuru said, finishing her statement with a subtle jiggle of her nicely sized breasts.

"..." Ichigo fell silent for a second as he realized innuendo and double talking was her specialty.

"Here you go Ichigo-kun!" The shop owner called, setting down a tray with two strawberry buns on them. "Hot out the oven for you!"

"Thank you very much!" He exclaimed, tears filling the edges of his eyes as he bow, setting the money on the counter.

"Anything for my favorite customer." The older woman laughed and went off to clean the kitchen.

"Lucky dog," Chizuru said, just a tiny bit jealous HE got fresh from the oven food.

"I was born under a blessed star." Ichigo said without a trace of modesty as he started eating the first of the buns. "It's so good..."

"Don't gloat about it, man." Chizuru said, pouting a little even as she ate her creampuff and sighed in happiness. "This morning officially rocks."

"Good to know." The shop lady said with a hearty laugh before she sized up Ichigo. "Boy, you've been my best customer since I opened these doors and I think I like you. Come over after school some time and fuck my daughter."

Ichigo had just managed to swallow that bite, so he avoided choking on it. He did, however, recoil in horror at the blatant child pimping from the woman.

"Isn't that a bit much, Obasan?" Chizuru said, before she thought about it for a second. "Though if you need someone to corrupt her and rob her of her purity, I'll take the offer instead."

"I might have to, she won't get off that stupid 'my future husband has to be able to beat me' kick she's been on since she saw it in that anime movie that's out." The shop lady confessed with a sigh, even as a cry of barely articulated rage emanated from the house attached to the shop.

"!" A shapely, if tomboyish, young girl barged in from a side door to scold her parent. "Will you stop trying to pimp me out to my friends!"

"I worry about you dear, you're already the best fighter in town and I want to be able to spoil my grandchildren properly." The girl's mother said, her face puckered in childish annoyance.

"I'm fifteen!" The girl cried, stamping her foot before she noticed the two staring at her. "What?"

"Tatsuki-chan, you might want to get dressed before storming to your own defense." Chizuru said solemnly.

Tatsuki looked down and realized she was only in her bra and panties and shrieked in stark terror and fled from the room.

"Bear panties..." Ichigo didn't take that tough girl for having a cute fetish. "I didn't think she'd have underwear that girly." Not that he really thought about it.

"She wears them every so often, last week they were ducks." Chizuru noted, before calling out, "Hey, if you wanted to skip school so I could make a woman out of you, you should have just called my name instead of flashing poor Kurosaki! He's turning red from embarrassment in here!"

"I am not." He said quietly, closing his eyes in disapproval and pivoting for the door. "Sorry, I'll return the tray later." He had good timing, since he got that in before Tatsuki's second scream of outrage drowned out sound in the shop.

"Don't worry about it, but you should hurry before she beats you up for impugning her honor." Tatsuki's mother said with a good natured laugh and a friendly wave.

"Beneath that boyish face lies the body of an angel," Chizuru said, using her hands to make an approximation of Tatsuki's figure in the air.

"No wonder she's always slouching." Ichigo nominally agreed. While not holding anything consider a torch for her, he would say that she was attractive. "Though that's probably because she doesn't want to get suspended for beating up the guys in class."

"Luckily I got such an understanding girl in my life," Chizuru sighed, before she looked back in the direction of the shop. "Or else I might have jumped the counter."

"Tatsuki would kill you if you did that." Ichigo pointed out mildly as he started on his second bun, still slightly warm.

"She was embarrassed, which is an auto-debuff to women, plus her mom was in the way and cheering for me. Not even an offensive dynamo like Tatsuki-chan could have prevailed against me at that moment." Chizuru pumped a fist and let out a fired up cry. "But I have to consider my girl first. Even if she thinks I don't know she's putting the moves on a sempai in the library club."

"Nothing escapes you, as long as it deals with perversion and women." Ichigo shook his head at her. "I'd be disappointed in you, but I would have to expect decency from you."

"Well, I better turn off here, Asano is probably still mad at me." Chizuru shrugged off Ichigo's posturing and headed for another gate.

"You did fuck his sister." He felt he had to defend his favorite punching bag.

"Kojima has too and he's still being all buddy buddy with him." She countered, to which he shrugs.

"Seems Keigo don't know about that." Not that he cared, but his budding friendship with Chizuru over their mutual love of delicious delicious pastries was making it hard to not beat up Keigo for real.

"Oh well, just tell him that I said he's a loser and he should stop being such a disgusting siscon." She started to open the gate.

"This from someone who wishes they had a sister for that very reason." Ichigo had to get one last dig in, even if it was doomed to fail.

"You know me well enough by now to know I wouldn't have a complex about it." Chizuru let it slide and waved, disappearing through the gate which closed.

"She's gone so Keigo in 5..." He said, looking at an invisible watch. He turned sharply and threw a punch.

"Good morning Ichi-!" Keigo Asano started to say when the punch intersected his face at the speed of shut the fuck up and dropped him to the ground. "You do well to defeat a master such as I, young pupil. I shall train you in the ways of a true warrior."

"I refuse." Ichigo dropped the tray he was still carrying on the other boy's face. "Mornin' Mizuiro."

"Morning Kurosaki," Kojima Mizuiro said, before leaning over Keigo. "2 seconds, your training arc didn't pay any dividends."

"Shut up!" 

"I'm going on ahead." Ichigo waved and strode purposefully ahead.

"Hey wait, you can at least banter properly!" Keigo hollered, pulling himself off the ground and running after Ichigo.

"Keigo-san, your world must be amazing." Mizuiro said to himself with an amused smile on his face. He checked the time before he broke into a light jog, knowing he'd pass Keigo in no time flat.

/-\ /-\ /-\

"Alright, you know the drill! We'll take role first, and then you will grab yourself a weapon." A large, muscle bound man called, waving the clipboard in the air to get the gathered crowd's attention. "And for those of you stupid enough to forget, you are not to use these weapons on each other. They are for warding off ghost or monster attacks, and if you see a hollow, you will run away and tell us so we can get a Soul Reaper on the case, got it?"

"Yes sir!" The kids chorused, used to, but entirely sick of, this whole routine. Still, being mauled to death sounded like it would be worse, so they went with the protocol.

"Kurosaki!" The teacher called, some time later after he had started taking role.

"I'm here!" Ichigo paused to smooth his hair that had gotten unruly because of a sudden gust of wind.

And so it went, until he had cleared everyone in Ichigo's class. Once checked in, they proceeded to mill forward in an orderly fashion and grab a weapon of their choice. From tonfas to tantos, the box had it all, including guns and a freakin' nailbat for crying out loud.

"It still strikes me as wrong that the teachers are passing out weapons to us as opposed to making sure we don't bring any in ourselves." Ichigo had to comment to Mizuiro, who was standing next to the blond haired boy looking to have not a single care in the world. Even so, Ichigo reached in and pulled out a handgun, which he proceeded to inspect before retrieving the clip and loading it. "Besides, if those Soul Reapers would do their jobs we wouldn't need all this."

"Now now," Mizuiro admonished as he fished a pair of tonfas from the box and adroitly affixed them to his arms. "they're doing the best they can. After all, they were as surprised as we were when the rift opened."

"So they say," Ichigo frowned a little as his mood soured even more as he thought about that stupid hole. "I just wish we didn't have to know what a Hollow or a Soul Reaper was."

"Who doesn't?" Mizuiro said with a sigh, stretching a little. "I liked life better when there wasn't a horde of monsters ready to eat my face off."

"Word." Ichigo held out a fist. "At least it makes us appreciate the people who make an effort to still keep their head up."

"It's how we do, bro." Mizuiro completed the fist bump and the two finished heading to class.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Later in the day, Ichigo slipped into his house again, wanting to avoid confrontation so he could begin work on his homework among other things. His house was often rowdy for all the wrong reasons and he worried about his grades despite good test scores. There were the stairs now, just a couple long strides and he'd be safe in his room for the evening,

"Well hello, Ichigo." A scruffy faced individual with spiked hair who really looked like he belonged on the shores of New Jersey than a small clinic in Japan. That aside, this man was also a doctor, as evidenced by his coat and a name tag that read, 'yes, I really am a doctor'. "Not trying to give dear old dad the slip are you?" Isshin Kurosaki, father of Ichigo, and chief example in the case against age equaling maturity.

"I have better things to do than brawl with you again, old man." Despite his dismissal, Ichigo was sizing him up for a preemptive strike.

"Nonsense," Isshin dismissed with a jovial snort. "It's important for a father and son to bond you know."

"I'm just tired of always beating you." All Ichigo wanted was a quiet night in his room, homework on the desk, some nice tunes on the radio. Was that so much to ask for?

"I let you win, otherwise you'd grow discouraged by the awesome might of your father." Isshin laughed heartily and puffed out his chest. Yeah, you wouldn't be too far off to say he was kind of an idiot.

"You haven't beat me fair and square since I was five and even then it was a dicey proposition for you." Ichigo was not having this shit, no sir.

"Hahahaha!" The elder Kurosaki laughed uproariously. And then he kicked his son in the face, sending the surly teen down to his ass. "It appears you've been getting too big for your britches boy."

"Okay, that's it!" Ichigo rebounded to his feet with fire in his eyes. As a teen used to getting into scraps, he understood the basic tenants of brawling. That is to say, get in there and lay waste to the other person as brutally as possible. In this case, Ichigo charged forward and blasted Isshin off his feet with a mighty right cross, slamming the older man hard into a wall.

"That's it Ichigo! Show Daddy your war face!" Isshin took a step forward and got clocked by a left, then a right. When the Kurosaki patriarch tried to cover up, Ichigo simply kneed him in the stomach, dropping the man to his knees.

"ONE NIGHT! IS ONE NIGHT WITHOUT YOUR STUPID BULLSHIT SO MUCH TO ASK!" Screw the neighbors, Ichigo had finally had enough of the posturing bullshit he had endured growing up.

"Quit whining you big baby." Isshin rocketed back into action, but his impressive uppercut only caught air. Ichigo punched him in the face again, sending the man wobbling back.

"You're not a challenge, you shitty old man. All you can do is sneak attack me and even then, all I do is get up and knock you around." As he was speaking, Isshin attacked again. Ichigo cut him off with a thrust kick to the face, which illustrated the point even more.

"I wish Daddy and Ichi-Nii wouldn't fight like this." A little blond girl commented, she no more than ten but already taking over cooking duties on nights such as these. 

"It's because Mom isn't coming home tonight, Yuzu." Another girl with black hair replied, sitting with her back to the fracas. Her eyes were covered with bandages which were swathed by characters denoting that her eyes had been sealed. "Dad is always rowdy without her to keep him in line."

"But Karin, you know Mommy hates it when Daddy makes Ichi-Nii mad." Yuzu turned from the rather uninteresting sight of her brother pummeling their father once again to continue this sudden line of discussion.

"Don't worry about it, let Mom tear off a chunk off his hide if he wants to try and act like such a big shot when she isn't around." Karin loved her father well enough, but not when he was being an idiot and picking fights with Ichigo. "Just get started on dinner already, I'm hungry and food always helps me study." She ran her fingers over the textbook that was in front of her. It was yet to be opened but there seemed to be an implication that she needed help with it.

"I should make some tea for Ichi-Nii, he'll need something to calm down after he's done beating up Daddy." With a purpose, Yuzu busily worked he way to the stove and set a kettle on to warm. "What are you working on for today Karin?"

"Remedial reading, Sensei says that I need to make sure I can read properly before I can go on to anything else." Being blind had taken the wind out of her sails for the time being, but Karin had her twin and big brother to rely on. "Coach also said if I can ace the upcoming quiz, he'll let me practice my kicking again on the football field."

"That's great, Karin!" Yuzu said with a beaming smile on her face as she went through the pantry. "Should I prepare anything else for his tea?"

"No, dinner will be soon and you don't need to be cooking too much else." That and Karin didn't want Ichigo to get any more special treatment than he was already getting. "The thought alone should be enough."

"I suppose," Yuzu fidgeted a little even though no one could see it. It was a terrible habit of hers, one that she hoped to grow out of some day. She looked back towards the fight and seeing it wrap up when Ichigo threw Isshin to the floor in a crude affront to Judo that had students of the art flying into an inconsolable rage for no reason. "Ah, it's over."

"I'm going to my room, and I don't want to be bothered for the rest of the night." Ichigo turned to see Yuzu watching on. "Ah, sorry, but can I eat my dinner in my room tonight."

"Don't worry," Yuzu said with a smile. "I want you to be able to enjoy dinner."

"Thanks," Ichigo flashed a very relieved smile that he wouldn't be hurting her feelings. "Tell Karin that I expect to be helping her practice her shot when she aces that quiz." He turned for the stairs and left without waiting for a reply.

"It'd be nice if he didn't have to eat alone in his room." Yuzu said, looking down at her semi-conscious father with a plain look on her face. She didn't approve, but she wasn't going to berate her father's awkward attempts at bonding with her brother.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm being blamed for something?" Isshin said as he came to from his high-speed collision with the floor. Luckily for him, the years of fighting with Ichigo had made him unbelievably tough.

"Because you did what Mommy said not to," Yuzu said, shaking her head. There would be no need for her to punish him, her mom would see to it thoroughly enough.

"Nonsense, why would she tell me not to fight with Ichigo?" Isshin laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. He was a shitty liar whenever he was actually guilty of something.

"Because she's always telling you to knock it off whenever she finds out you've been fighting again." Karin called from the kitchen, causing the Kurosaki patriarch to wilt visibly.

"You... you two won't tell her, right?" Isshin hoped for a stay of his sentence until he could come up with a good excuse.

"We've never told on you, Ichi-Nii always calls Mom at school after a fight." Yuzu explained with a bright smile.

And on this day, Isshin Kurosaki realized that he was naught but a fool, the very realization bringing him to tears of regret.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Ichigo placed the empty tea glass back down on the tray and let out a sigh of contentment and leaned back in his desk chair. It was nice to indulge in his dinner alone after another victory over his dad, especially since he didn't have to worry about a potential rematch. Picking up the headphones from his nightstand, Ichigo slipped them on and decided to not worry about doing anything important for the rest of the night.

Volume raised, the blond son of Isshin began to relax to the quiet tones that made up popular music these days. A quick searching of his desk retrieved the manga he was reading the night before, hoping to read further into the adventure of his favorite character. Even now, with the world the way it was and all the worries of the sudden violent end to him and his fellow countrymen, Ichigo couldn't help but wish they still had anime conventions so he could go to one.

Yeah, you wouldn't be far off if you made the observation that Ichigo was a dork deep down despite his gruff exterior.

"Oh Gintoki, if only I could have wacky adventures like you." With all the seriousness of the world, the fact that there was such a manga to allow for such an escape was a boon of immense relief to Ichigo. He chuckled a bit, even if he really only found the jokes to be marginally funny. The only thing missing was a bag of potato chips to eat...

The music as loud as it was, Ichigo did not hear what happened next, did not hear the entrance of a black butterfly dancing its way into his room. The window was shut tight, so it made a faint whooshing sound as it passed through the wall as though it weren't there. But he felt it, the tremor in his soul as some being of great magnitude entering his presence unannounced and uninvited.

His music forgotten, the manga tossed aside, Ichigo whirled around to face the intruder into his realm. The black butterfly danced higher into the air before dissipating in a brief flash of red light. A youngish person of ambiguous gender landed lightly upon the floor, their body covered in a black outfit that looked like belonged to a Kabuki trope, with a stylish white jacket denoting them as a very important person.

In short, a Soul Reaper just decided to drop in to chat with him.

"The trail goes cold here," the Soul Reaper said, standing up to their full height. "No, that's not quite right, it's like something else is blocking it out. Maybe I'm not too late then..."

Normally, when such a being ports in unannounced, you would more than likely decide to ask what is happening and what you could do to help. Ichigo, however, did not like Soul Reapers and thus was prone to stupid decisions when one crossed his path. Like sneaking up on them and deciding to give them a good boot to the head.

"Not too late for wha-?" Ichigo trailed off when the expected impact of his foot and their head did not come into being. He lurched forward and spun, regaining his balance as he tried to acquire his nocturnal invader as fast as possible.

"If I had ever expected humans to have hospitality, I'd be shocked by your stunning lack of it." The Soul Reaper intoned, their voice rolling off the walls from all directions. "Come now boy, surely you have learned how to detect invading spiritual beings by now! What are they teaching you in those schools of yours?"

"Shut up!" Ichigo yelled, diving across the room and grabbing his schoolbag. Swiftly, he pulled the handgun he was given earlier from it and cocked it in a quick motion. A deep breath to calm himself, he quickly found the Soul Reaper behind him and whirled to put the gun to their face.

"What, I give you time to find a weapon and you can't even get something to threaten me with?" A look of arrogance crossed the intruder's face, mirth dancing in their violet eyes.

"I said, shut up!" Ichigo felt only slightly foolish, but that was because he hadn't been quiet enough to land that kick before. The gun was the equalizer he told himself, or else the Soul Reaper would have disarmed him by now. "What are you doing in my house?" 

"My job." The reply was blunt and the rude person even put their hands on their hips in a mock display of annoyance. "I would appreciate some gratitude for being here to save your family from certain death."

"There's no hollow here, so fuck off." He twitched a bit, losing his cool just a tad. This was dangerous wasn't it? If there was a hollow lurking around, shouldn't he stop being stupid and let the Soul Reaper kill it?

"Not yet of course, or you and your family would be dead." The Soul Reaper's eyes rolled, sarcasm heavily implied in their body language as they continued to show no outward sign of giving a fuck about the weapon trained on them. "I guess we'll have to work on the curriculum, humans are getting dumb these days."

"Oh go fuck yourself." The put upon human punctuated that statement by firing the gun, which did not kick due to a lack of actual gun powder.

The intruder into Ichigo's peaceful life just smirked before languidly reaching out and pulling the bullet from the air. They examined it for a second and then tossed it away behind them.

"..." Ichigo had no words and could only look at the gun as if it had betrayed him.

"Is that all boy?" The Soul Reaper asked, tone taking on a feminine lilt to its patronizing mocking. "Want to have another go, kid?" She gestured for him to come at her, bro.

"Why won't you shut up!" Ichigo threw the gun much like he threw this tantrum, sloppily and all together a complete embarrassment to him and his self-image.

"I don't take orders from you," she blithely responded as she caught the gun without effort. She looked at it for a second before she held it up. "This is only good for ghosts or other minor spirits. You couldn't kill a starving hollow who was about to fade away from hunger with this, boy."

"Great, a weapon that can't protect us, same old shitty Soul Reaper logic." Ichigo was not pouting now, why did you ask?

"Typical ingrate human," she responded, crushing the gun in her hand with ridiculous ease. "We've told you time and again that if we could devote all our time to reducing the excess ghost population we would, but the rift is too important to go unattended. And yet, time and time again, you humans whine and cry that we do our best to ensure you and yours don't die horrifically." She brushed a stray bang from her eyes as she dropped the crumpled mass of metal to the floor.

"Then why don't you close the rift then and leave?" Ichigo turned away, sulking a little even as he realized that he was being an ungrateful dick about it.

"We tried," she said, sighing and shaking her head. "That's why the war drug on because we were wasting time trying to close it. Even now, with more than a decade of study, we're not even close to an answer." She looked at him and took a steadying breath. She could get through this, without beating his face in.

"Yeah right. I bet you guys just get off on lording over us and that's why it hasn't been closed yet." He turned to look at her but she disappeared in a swoosh of displaced air. And then suddenly, he found himself face down on the floor, knocked over by a kick he couldn't even feel being thrown.

"Let me make this clear, you little conceited shit." She said, stepping on the back of his head. "Revealing ourselves to you was never in the cards for us, and it was only because of how dire the situation was that we pulled back the veil for you to see. I'm tired of you idiots thinking that we caused it for some misguided power grab!" She hopped off Ichigo's back and kicked him in the ribs, rolling him over three times before he came to rest on his back. "Get up, I'll beat some respect into you boy."

"That's rich," Ichigo said as he climbed to his feet. "I don't even feel your kicks, you shitty bitch." He charged forward and punched, only for her to slip it easily.

"Nice job telegraphing that punch, kid. Maybe next time, you won't send me a telegram from China telling me to watch out." She danced a bit, taunting the upstart human to try and hit her in the face. "C'mon boy, you should be able to back that shit you talk up."

"Do you ever shut up?" Ichigo threw a nice side kick that was still too slow to catch the Soul Reaper, who mockingly felt up his leg.

"You're all stringy boy! Don't you eat enough meat to get something on your bones?" She laughed as she skipped out of his reach and taunted him again. "You want I should come back after you've had a training arc or two to toughen up? I shouldn't pick on children like you!"

"Fuck off!" Now he was really mad, which showed itself in his increased determination to hit the taunting bitch.

"My, such manners. Do you speak to all of your guests like this?" She weaved away from his punches and hopped around his kicks. She even struck a cheesecake pose around one of his swings. "Oh so close boy! You might freeze me with this breeze you're kicking up!"

"What's a matter? Afraid to hit me back?" He tried to taunt back a little, he was wasting his energy and she was only exerting her mouth to make fun of him.

"In that much of a hurry to lose are you?" She smirked, a dangerous gleam in her eye.

"You're just a coward anyways, why would I be afraid of your love taps?" He finished the taunt with another punch, only to feel the rustle of wind and then a very large draft. Slowly, he looked down and yep, he was naked. Dumbly, he turned around to see her examining his clothes.

"Man, you are such a dork." She lifted up his school blazer, which he had apparently not taken off upon entering his room. "Still wearing your school clothes? Aren't you just the most precious thing?" She didn't look at him even as she then proceeded to swing his boxers on her finger. "Nice boxers, I didn't think they sold them in purple polka dots anymore." She did give his body a quick once over and nodded in approval. "At least you're in good shape, in all the right places." She leered at him, bringing his brain back online as he finally covered himself.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" This woman who was pretending to be a Soul Reaper was insane.

"Just showing you the gap between you and I." She blurred out from his vision and then Ichigo found himself clothed minus his jacket. "I stripped you completely naked before you could realize what I did. Ask yourself this, how many attacks could I land on you in that small gap of time?"

"Wouldn't it be better to just hit me instead?" Though he didn't want to feel the pain from that, but the blow to his pride was enormous.

"Maybe, maybe." She laughed and sized him up again with a different look in her eyes. "You're the type of human I always hate dealing with."

"Because I call you out on your bullshit?" Ichigo couldn't read the mood of the conversation as the taunting died down.

"Heh heh, no." She shook her head and looked him in the eye, biting her lip a little as Ichigo suddenly began feeling nervous. "I can't control myself around guys like you."

"What." It came out flat and it wasn't as questioning as he had intended, but nevertheless, Ichigo began to back pedal away from the Soul Reaper. This proved futile, as a weight crashed into him and threw him to the floor. She was suddenly astride his waist, face suddenly in his, eyes filled with emotions.

"Don't worry, I just need a moment to calm down. I won't do anything more than this to you. And even though it'd be glorious and I'd have you singing like the world's greatest fiddle, I have a job to do and you don't need that from someone you'll never see again." She sighed, even as she slowly lowered her face towards his. Her eyes closed as she finally stopped short of his lips. "I would make a man out of you, but I'm not in the mood to ask nor am I in the mood to hear your answer."

There was nothing he could do, paralyzed as he was by her close proximity. Even worse she was actually far stronger than him so it felt like he was being pinned down by a lead weight. He dare not move, dare not speak, dare not breath and could only pray to whoever would listen to allow him to escape this situation.

"My name... is Rukia Kuchiki." She finally identified herself, still lurking right there, a hair's breadth away from taking Ichigo for all he had and more. A sharp breath from her nostrils rolled over his face as he tried not to quiver. Thankfully, this seemed to calm her down and she pulled back away from his face, though remained seated on his stomach. "Captain of the 13th division of the Earthside Gotei 13, the Soul Reaper in charge of all operations to protect this sector. A pleasure to meet you." She nodded her head and rolled off him without pausing to consider how bizarre she was acting.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki." He said, sitting up and looking at her. She was sitting, more like kneeling on the floor now, face flush and sweat already sticking to her face. "I hope we can get along." Though he was on the fence on how they were to get along and he knew better than to dwell on how what just happened made him feel.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Rukia said with a friendly...ish smile. "Besides me, has anything unusual happened around your house today?"

"Can't really say," Ichigo shrugged, still trying to wrap his head around how everything went whiplashing around. "I haven't payed attention to much happening lately. Did kill a ghost last week though."

"I'm sure your parents commended you for it." Rukia said, not really intending to condescend to the boy. Compared to a hollow, a ghost may as well be a fart in the wind.

"Mom was proud, dad was furious." Ichigo shook his head, trying to force down his nervousness at trying to talk to the volatile Soul Reaper. "He always seems paranoid when you guys are mentioned."

"No wonder you're so distrustful of us then," Rukia said before holding up a hand to stop. "I'm sure that's not exactly it, maybe we can have a chat at the tower sometime?"

Before Ichigo could speak, he felt it, the disgusting skin crawling feeling of a hollow appearing into this world. As he began to sweat, Rukia felt it too and grimaced as she realized that it was incredibly weak. Then where had that reiatsu gone, unless...

"There is no way." She muttered to herself before she took a steadying breath and focused on detecting reiatsu alone, which gave her two pings, the hollow and the boy in front of her.

"A hollow... there's a hollow coming." Ichigo was numb, an old fear welling up in his body. In his mind's eye, he could see his mother diving to protect him before a figure in black appeared in front of her. "Oh god, Yuzu! Karin!"

"It's been sitting in front of me all along," Rukia muttered as she berated herself for growing complacent on seekers for finding shit around Karakura-cho. She did note that the reishi wafting off the objects in the room were red, which meant one of his parents was an ex-Shinigami. "Well if that's the case..."

"Look, can you go and kill that thing? I need to get my sisters out of its way." Ichigo was already starting for the door when he heard the sound of a sword being drawn. Where had she gotten that?

"I have a better idea and you're going to think I'm crazy when I say this." She said, a bright smile adorning her face in a totally off-putting manner.

"And what's that?" He did not like where this was going, not one bit. He started to back peddle even as he remembered she was faster than he was.

"I can give you the power to fight and kill the hollow all on your own, there's just a slight catch." She made a gesture with a left hand demonstrating that it was, indeed, just a tiny catch.

"And that is?" Why was we talking to her and not running in terror right now? Before he could contemplate what the answer meant, he was stopped by her completely frank and off hand laugh.

"You just have to die." She hastily waved her hand before he could protest. "It's not exactly death, it's just my zanpakuto will simulate your death and allow your spirit to fight as a Soul Reaper. Neat huh?"

"And why would I do that?" He backed into the door and looked around for a table to throw at her.

"For one, I was actually attracted here by YOUR reiatsu, so in a way, the hollow coming here is your fault." She said, knowing she had time to explain this because the hollow was being held off by the other strong reiatsu in the house. "For two, you seem to have this powerlessness kick about you and that if you could kick their asses you would, so maybe you'd stop pouting that we're holding you down when we try to save you from certain death. And three, you won't have to sit back and watch someone else save the day for you. I know that feeling and I don't wish it on anyone, even brats like you."

Damn, she would have to make a somewhat decent argument for it. But still, this was too charitable, so there had to be a bigger catch.

"There's still something you're not telling me." He crossed his arms even as he eyed the door for a brief second.

"Well, for it to be legal, you'd have to agree to join my squad. That's only because I'm the captain so I'm not supposed to do field recruiting except when it's really necessary." She shrugged a little, before laughing again. "Ah well, I fill out the paper work so I can fudge certain details and the Captain Commander back in Seireitei won't give me shit about it."

"I remember that you don't really have to play by their rules, but you should at least pretend you do." Ichigo sighed, this was shaping up to be the worst day ever.

"Something like that, but cheer up kid. You will get to do more than run away from hollows and can even protect your school and friends from everything." Rukia appealed to his vanity, figuring the idea of being a hero would entice him a bit. "Besides, you don't want to hear about the alternative."

"I guess we can go over the particulars later." Ichigo thought about actually protecting his school and his family. To be able to make a difference in his hometown, to ease their fears of the hollow menace. "I've heard it be said that the difference between a man and a beast is the reason they have fangs. If you use them to protect, you're a man. If you use them to harm and eat like a glutton, you're just a beast. All these hollows seem like they just want to do nothing but eat, so lend me the power to protect the people of this town."

"Well said, young boy." She readied her zanpakuto for a thrust. "Move your arms out of the way and remain still or I'll kill you for real instead of fake killing you."

"Wait what." He said, hesitant to obey that kind of order.

"So it's a sword with magic powers and all, but it's still a sword. There's a spot on your body that intersects your spirit and serves as the point that produces reiryoku and allows you to use it." She didn't move from her stance as she located said spot, blocked by his arms. "It's different for a Soul Reaper, which is why I have to do it myself. If I were just a Shinigami, it wouldn't matter as long as I stabbed you in the body."

"Will it hurt?" He felt he should at least ask that.

"Only if I miss or if you insist on me going through your arms. Now be a good boy and put your hands at your side and hold still." She paused as he complied. "Hold your breath too, you don't want to leave it to chance boy."

"Right." He said, before he closed his eyes and held his breath.

"And with that, I welcome you to my squadron, Ichigo Kurosaki!" Rukia said with a certain flair, before she made her thrust, neatly skewering the poor boy straight through the heart. Strangely, there was no blood nor was there any pain, but the force of the attack knocked him back a step and the air from his lungs.

Ichigo could not find the words to describe how this felt, even as he felt a surge of energy ripple through his being. He found that he could still breath, which did not disturb the zanpakuto jutting merrily from his chest at all. He could feel himself falling and yet, it was as though he were still standing.

"This feels strange." He said with an exact amount of finality, adding a quick bob of his head before the energy welling up inside of him seemed to spill out.

Outside, the hollow known as Fishbone D looked up at the house of its intended victim and gave a start when red reishi exploded out the window on the second floor.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Isshin finally felt the presence of their Soul Reaper guest, about fifteen minutes after she had arrived. He had been too nervous to try and confront said visitor, owing to the fact that he was always nervous about Shinigami and Soul Reapers too. This whole Rift business was mucking everything up and to the point that he was certain something bad was going to happen.

That said, he felt the hollow approach five minutes ago and went over everything he could do against it in his head as fast as possible. He did not expect it to stop and wait, even though he could feel its hunger being projected on the world like a sticky film. So he stood guard at the door, waiting for it to come barging in when something new just hit his senses and tore him away from what he was doing at the moment.

His son was giving off a tremendous amount of reiatsu, more than even a skilled fighter of Ichigo's caliber should without artificial means.

Everything clicked into place as he realized that Ichigo had drawn the Soul Reaper to them because he hadn't known that he'd been giving of subtle amounts of reiatsu for the past couple years. Man, keeping secrets from your son can really bite you on the ass. Either way, he wasn't shocked when he heard his son's window shatter from the force of the reiatsu spilling out.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I'm cut out for this whole father thing," he muttered to himself as he exited the clinic just in time to see the Soul Reaper and Ichigo land on the ground in front of the hollow.

"Okay, so you have a sword the size of a small car and absolutely no training to use it." Rukia said, even as she felt Isshin's presence behind her. "In your favor though, the hollow you're about to face is only lethal to humans and ghosts. He's a good tutorial fight for you, just remember to focus so your mind doesn't trick you on anything."

"It's kind of ugly looking." Ichigo sized up the hollow, ignoring the skulking of his father as he easily hefted the sword and did a practice swing. "So this is a zanpakuto huh?" It was, as Rukia said, about the small car, nearly as long as Ichigo was tall. It had a pale color to it, reminiscent of the light of the moon.

"Yeah, it'd normally be smaller, but field recruitment means you don't get training to force it down to the size of this." Rukia said, jiggling her zanpakuto for reference. "It is basically wrangling stray reishi into the shape of a sword, and such haphazard methods for making one certainly means that the resulting blade can be a bit... big."

"It's cool, I kind of like it like this anyways." Ichigo shrugged even in the face of the roar let out by the hollow. "A sword to cleave evil eh? Sounds like this will be fun."

"Just remember, it has no weight, so don't try and compensate for it. The reishi making it up are lighter than actual metal regardless of their feel." Rukia said, turning a stern look upon the hollow. "Don't get cocky, you can still die as you are now. Feel your reiryoku and release it as reiatsu, as you understand how it works, certain abilities will become evident without me having to show you. Good luck Ichigo and remember, your only limitations are your imagination and the amount of reiryoku in your soul." Rukia hopped back and landed right beside Isshin, only giving the man a quick look before turning back to the fight.

"Got it." He took a deep breath and blew out a sigh. "Hey ugly, come and get some!"

Fishbone D, starving and in dire need of a meal, was more than happy to oblige. It charged forward with a speed belying its size, but its opening punch found only the pavement as Ichigo simply vanished.

"So that's how that crazy chick moved around so fast." Ichigo said with a laugh, the thrill of the fight starting to make his figurative blood burn. "Too bad for you fishface, but I'm in the mood to play with you a bit as I test these new powers out."

The hollow charged towards the neophyte Soul Reaper, but found only air again as Ichigo seemed to teleport away.

"That's it for moving, so how about we see how sharp the big blade of mine is?" He didn't want to call it a sword, since he felt it was too big to be called by such a puny word. He felt he could cut a horse and rider in two with a single swing, which gave him yet another odd tingle deep down in his nerdy soul.

Fishbone D could only wail in its impotence, but this tantrum cost it an arm, the left to be precise. Blood hit the pavement along with the severed limb, which furthered ruined the hollow's evening. Its pained cries almost made Ichigo feel bad.

"Aw seriously, shut up." Ichigo said, a terse bite of annoyance flowing through his voice as he stood behind the howling monster. "You come to my house and try to kill my family. The least you could do is not be such a baby about getting hit."

"If you get bored, just ram your zanpakuto through its head." Rukia called out, figuring he'd get bored pretty fast with the small fry.

"Thanks for the tip." Ichigo said, smirking a little as he vanished again and cut off the hollow's left leg at the knee.

It bellowed, an odd grating sound not unlike the wailing a stuck pig. The hollow even bled like one too.

"Yeah, we're done here." Ichigo said, appearing before the hollow and slamming his zanpakuto through the hollow's head, bifurcating it neatly. He hopped back just in time to dodge the spray of blood before he watched the thing basically dissolve into a mass of reishi and light. "No wonder she called it a tutorial fight."

"Congratulations boy, you've killed your first hollow!" Rukia said, turning to look Isshin square in the face and dare him to speak without being spoken too.

"Thanks, I guess." The adrenaline wore off rapidly, leaving him realizing that he had just become a Soul Reaper and killed a hollow. "Aw hell yes, suck on it you ugly fuckers!" He struck a little pose with his comically huge sword, which drew claps from both Rukia and his father.

"That's my boy." Isshin said, coming to peace with the fact that he was dead when his wife came home. "You do your old man proud, son."

"For some reason, that just makes me feel worse about this whole thing." Ichigo muttered, even as Rukia laughed in opened derision of the awkward display of paternal pride. "Say, Rukia..."

"Captain." She corrected swiftly, cutting her laughter off even as she took a loose stance. "You're my subordinate and when you earn the right to call me by name, I'll tell you."

"Okay, Captain." He said, backing down if only because he was going to pay her back for that. "How about a quick match now that I'm not just some stupid human?"

"Hah! This is how it always is with you humans, give them a modicum of power and they start tripping balls off it." She said, punctuating her statement with another round of mocking laughter.

"I at least asked!" Ichigo called as he appeared over her, swinging his zanpakuto down to crush the much smaller than him Soul Reaper. And like the last time he tried to surprise attack her, he summarily missed. He spun as best he could as he again did not brace himself for the possibility of missing.

"Look at you," Rukia said, floating in the air behind him. "You can't even do a proper shunpo and you're trying to sneak attack me."

"What the hell?" Ichigo said, before she was suddenly kneeing him in the face. He hadn't even detected her movement and now found him flat on his back.

"Listen boy, you just now stepped into this world, don't go thinking that we're all alike." Rukia said, quickly kicking his sword up out of his slackened grip and grabbing it by his blade. "Normally, zanpakuto are carefully crafted before they are given to prospective candidate, which provides some for m of stability and protection, not to mention easier to carry. However, yours is entirely born from within you at the moment you became a Soul Reaper, which means that it is far more tied to you than even my zanpakuto is to me. What all this means is that you have to keep your resolve firm or this is just a useless sack of reishi that couldn't cut wet paper. Always remember that the edge of this sword and its ability to protect you always depends on your own resolve."

"You could tell?" Ichigo muttered as he stared up into the night sky, unable to look at her.

"Tell what?" Isshin did not like be on the outside of this conversation, no sir.

"That he wasn't being serious and just wanted to see the limits of his powers." Rukia said, turning away from Ichigo and looking at the spot where Fishbone D had dissolved. "If he wanted to fight, he wouldn't bother asking me."

"Oh... she's good." Isshin said, letting out a whistle of appreciation.

"By the way," Rukia turned and looked directly at Isshin. "There is nothing to worry yourself about, Isshin Kurosaki. Soul Society has known where you were since they arrived to first fight the hollows coming from the rift and their answer remains the same: They have no interest in an ex-Shinigami who gave up his position and powers to live in the human world."

"Dad? An ex-Shinigami?" Ichigo sat up with a joking laughing, only to see the almost shamed look on Isshin's face. "You're serious? Like, for real?"

"There's a good reason why you attracted her here son," Isshin said, his tone taking on a heaviness that didn't jive with how Ichigo saw his father. "But your mother needs to be here when I explain that."

"If nothing else, you can stop worrying about being called back to battle." Rukia said with a shrug, before shaking her head. "I hope it was worth it, using that technique Kisuke taught you."

"Urahara? What does mom's boss have to do with anything?" Ichigo looked to his dad for answers again, hoping for some explanation.

"That technique is why I met and married Masaki." Isshin replied with a big grin. "I have a great son and two beautiful daughters, so I figure the pluses far outweighed the minuses."

"Now that sounds like you," Ichigo muttered, resisting the urge to shake his head at all this double talk.

"Oh well," Rukia said, smoothing out a wrinkle she spotted on her jacket. "I suppose I can go back now that the hollow is dead. You should come along, I need to get you registered as part of my squad as well as a few remedial lectures on certain things now that you're a Soul Reaper."

"Uh, sure." Ichigo said, looking to his father who quickly gestured for him to follow along. "I do have school."

"They'll understand." She said with a jovial laugh before her expression turned serious. "Or I'll make them."

"Okay..." Ichigo said, knowing that he really was completely and totally in over his head. He hurried to catch up to her, and thus the two Soul Reapers made off into the night...

End Chapter 1

Teaser for Chapter 2 "You Know That I Could Use Somebody":

"So this captain tower of yours," Ichigo decided to break the ice as they ran over the rooftops of Karakura. "Pretty swank place to chill out?"

"You could say that." Rukia said, before sighing. "Unfortunately, we got a higher ratio of idiots than any of the other squads, save maybe 11."

"That bad huh?" Ichigo only really had to deal with Keigo and the occasional punk, he couldn't imagine working intimately with them.

"It's not entirely bad, but they get on my nerves more than I'd like." She replied, tone relaxing. "Fortunately, the other captains are kind of cool, so at least I can hide out and talk to them."

"Sounds like you've found a few perks." He said, smirking just a little.

"A little," she said with a laugh before she turned serious again. "Let me do the talking when we get there, I'm not turning you over to the academy."

"The academy?"

Author note: And that's done. Hurray! Now onto chapter two.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: It's amazin', I'm the reason, everybody reviewin' this evening.

Author note: Chapter 2 and we hit a lot of exposition as we explain both what the hell is going on as well as set things in motion for the rest of the story. Don't worry though, the storm will pretty much thin out after this. And for anyone who may be offended by the dark humor that will be prevalent: Too bad!

Natural Blues

Chapter 2 You Know That I Could Use Somebody

by Marik Kurakashi

"So this captain tower of yours," Ichigo decided to break the ice as they ran over the rooftops of Karakura. "Pretty swank place to chill out?"

"You could say that." Rukia said, before sighing. "Unfortunately, we got a higher ratio of idiots than any of the other squads, save maybe 11."

"That bad huh?" Ichigo only really had to deal with Keigo and the occasional punk, he couldn't imagine working intimately with them.

"It's not entirely bad, but they get on my nerves more than I'd like." She replied, tone relaxing. "Fortunately, the other captains are kind of cool, so at least I can hide out and talk to them."

"Sounds like you've found a few perks." He said, smirking just a little.

"A little," she said with a laugh before she turned serious again. "Let me do the talking when we get there, I'm not turning you over to the academy."

"The academy?" He just sort of figured it was all like what happened with him: violent recruitment and trial by fire. Sink or swim, that kind of thing.

"Yeah, I know we don't seem like it," she said, either ignoring his surprise or expecting him to be questioning of her anyways. "But we established an academy to train new Soul Reapers like we had back in Soul Society."

"Makes sense, but why the animosity?" They were all fighting the good fight and all that.

"It's good for making people have the Shinigami mindset - aloof, detached, able to do the job without personal hangups getting in the way." Rukia said with a sigh, coming to stop on a rooftop and indicating they should stop for this. "If you said that you hated Soul Reapers because we have a tendency to act like morons who flaunt our power like it makes us special, I'd agree. Most of the academy's graduates are unfit for Soul Reaper duty specifically because we're not soldiers fighting a constant war on an ever-changing front. We don't need people who go out and die for the cause, we need people to be able to understand and guide the humans. Most of us feel this way, outside of the captain of Squad 11 but he's a self-admitted psychopath with a lust for battle."

"Sounds like it's a complex political situation you're in." Ichigo was mildly sympathetic, if only because he needed to keep her purported insanity pointed at someone else.

"You have no idea kid." She made a grand gesture indicating all the buildings around them. "Fact is, if many of the idiots who made up the academy back home had their way, they'd have vaporized this entire city in an effort to expand the rift so they could just kill the hollows coming out."

"You're kidding." Shinigami just leapt to top of his shit list.

"I wish, but luckily, the Captain Commander fried all of their asses for it." Rukia smiled a bit, the memory of watching those idiots dance about in flames flickering through her mind. "I think what helped us gain the system we have now is Urahara making that proposition of his: make a new Gotei on Earth, with all the lower ranks filling out the positions and such. The way he saw it, we didn't need powerful forces, just enough eyes watching it to kill what comes out. I was chosen, mainly because of family connections, though I had no idea I'd be made captain of a squad, I had barely completed training myself."

"So you got thrown into this thing to," Ichigo said, nodding along. "Kind of like me." Minus the threat of sexual violence naturally.

"Mm, well, to a degree, yeah. We don't have time for the whole story, but I was likely to have my partner here for the last nine years." She affectionately patted the sword, drawing a curious look from Ichigo.

"You say that like it's alive." They were just reishi shaped into a sword, right?

"Well, it is." She didn't react to his shocked expression, only waited for his fit to pass before continuing. "Every zanpakuto usually has a name, unless you got a blank one, but even then, they were made to be blank. If you keep with the programming, I'll let you know her name." She smirked for a brief second. "I can even find out yours later if you want."

"Maybe later," he waved it off, looking away. "If there is a spirit in here, it will tell me its name when its ready."

"That's why I want to train you myself." Rukia laughed at his perplexed looked, taking a moment to gather herself. "Even if you have everything wrong, you at least have the proper mindset for being a Soul Reaper."

"I don't know how I should feel." He did, but he felt like tweaking her a bit. "But thanks anyways."

"Don't mention it." Rukia stepped to the edge of the roof, before stopping to look back at him with a wolfish gleam in her eye. "There will be plenty of other ways I can train you if this job is a bust though."

Ichigo kept his head down even as she hopped to the next roof and let out a full sigh. He was going to be stuck in one of those conflicting feelings kind of situations, he just knew it. He had read enough manga and watched enough anime to know the warning signs in front of him.

/-\ /-\ /-\

The Headquarters for Squad 13 were, as Ichigo said, a pretty swank place to chill out at when you weren't fighting to save everyone. Sure, it looked like something you'd see as a tourist spot in some foreign city, but that didn't detract from the aesthetics of the building. The only really problem was that it was way too big and cast an ominous shadow over the surrounding area and just seemed unfriendly.

"Is there any reason for it to look that creepy?" Ichigo asked, fighting back a shudder at his close proximity.

"It's supposed to be like a scarecrow," Rukia said, shaking her head at the building. "But the problem is, what we're trying to scare doesn't give a fuck and what we're trying to protect just doesn't trust us."

"That pesky Shinigami don't understand humans thing coming up again." He wanted to feel sympathy, but those guys in Soul Society sounded like a bag of dicks.

"Mostly, yeah. I'm waiting to hear back on the budget for renovating the place so it doesn't look so intimidating. In fact, outside of squad 11, we all are." She said even as she opened the doors to the place.

"I heard the squad 11 captain broke his tower a couple years ago." He had chalked it up to more Soul Reaper idiocy, but it sounded like the guy was the only one who felt like saying fuck the rules and do what he wanted.

"Yeah, part of it is because the political wrangling necessary to do it in the first place," Rukia said as she waved away some guards who were understandable perturbed by this unknown vagrant talking to their captain. "The other is because he was bored and decided to see how much of a pounding the building could take."

"It obviously gave out before he did." Ichigo just eyed the people eying him and silently dared them to make a move.

"Make it through your first couple of weeks and I'll introduce you to him." She said as she led him past the onlookers into the building proper. "Just don't run your mouth, as he lives for battles and will cut anyone down if he thinks they'll give him a good fight."

"Sounds like a real head case." Still, he sounded pretty cool, for a Soul Reaper that is.

"Head case or not, he's the strongest captain we got, so we have to indulge his eccentricities if we're to take advantage of that battle mania." She grabbed a form from her receptionist and motioned him to follow her. "My office is back here, I don't like going to the top of the tower just to relax."

"Best place to have it." He peered at the clipboard in her hands and tried to read the paper on it. "So that's basically my membership application?"

"Yes." She said, keeping it close to her body. "With this, you'll be a member of my squad and I can train you all I want without having to battle the other captains for you."

"Am I really that special?" He felt she was trying to flatter him.

"You're a high-grade plus, which means that your reiryoku is greater than your average human or even Soul Reaper. Fact is, your sword materialization shouldn't have happened at all without a lot of outside him." She stopped before her door and turned to look him right in his eyes. "You're incredibly special, to the point that any of the other captains would have gladly taken you if you lived in their districts and they found you."

"My parents always said I was special, but I didn't really believe them." He muttered, before going back to something she said earlier. "You said, 'high-grade plus'. What does that even mean?"

"It's a basic separator for human souls: ones that will only attract a hollow if extremely close. These are normal pluses or if you would, low grade. High grade on the other hand are ones that can attract them for miles and are basically living hollow bait." She turned back around and opened the door, leading him inside and motioned to a chair. "In short, people like you are a nuisance for us when we try and keep things nice and combat zone free. Normally, there are three methods for dealing with such a human, which is recruitment, as you know."

"Obviously, though you said I didn't want to know the alternatives." The chair was comfy, he found. He watched as she seated herself behind her desk and laid the clipboard down.

"At the time, too much explaining could easily backfire into the hollow jumping into your house and tearing shit up." She began filling out parts of the form for him. "But it isn't too much. One is a downgrade process, which is incredibly painful and time consuming. We'd sterilize your scent off the house so your family wouldn't be attacked, but it'd be years before you'd see the light of day again. That's likely the nice option, recruitment being okay."

"You guys don't mess around do you?" He wasn't too shocked, not after other things she had already imparted to him.

"We can't afford to." She made sure she was finished with her part of it before handing it over. "Just sign where indicated. Anyways, the third option is imprisonment, which is pretty extreme but downgrading is in exact and there are those who don't want to join. So we sequester you away where the light of day will never reach you and wait for you to inevitably expire. You pass on to Soul Society and everyone else is safe."

"How many people have actually been imprisoned since you guys started this whole shindig?" He had to know, if only because he didn't want any illusions about this job. He finished signing shortly after he finished his question and pushed the clipboard back at her.

"None, most jump at the chance to fight the hollow, others are protected by Urahara." She checked his signatures and nodded, before opening a drawer and tossing it in there. "Automatic filing drawer, designed by Urahara." She patted the desk in a manor that seemed affectionate.

"He really have that much pull on Earth?" And here he had just thought that guy was just nuts.

"The protection tunnels, the towers, even the chair your sitting in were designed by him." She leaned back in her chair and gestured around the room. "Even Soul Reapers themselves were largely a creation of his, to the point that they're completely different to Shinigami, hence the separate words for them."

"No wonder mom always had a good word for him then." The paycheck she got probably helped a little.

"Enough about him for now," Rukia said, slamming her palm on her desk and a manilla folder ejecting from a hidden slot. "These are you official papers denoting you a part of my squad. Make sure to turn in the form on top for your armband so we can keep you in this squad."

"The sordid perils of a uniform dress code." Ichigo said as he took the folder from the desk. He looked at it for a second as he realized a question he had forgotten to ask. "You seem to be familiar with my dad, beyond the whole ex-Shinigami thing that is."

"Oh that's because I met your father a number of years back due to an incident involving your family." Rukia said, smirking a little at his shocked expression. "You remember how your mom nearly got eaten by a hollow?"

Ichigo only nodded, even as he mentally put it all together.

"That was me who drove it off, I didn't have time to get dressed properly for it, nor did I bring my actual zanpakuto with me." Rukia laughed a bit. "But this is my district and I'm not calling in back-up from other captains even for a hollow like Grand Fisher."

"No wonder Mom didn't want to hear me badmouth you guys." The memory was hazy, on the edge of his memories. Only the feeling of rain on his skin remained clear in his mind, and how much he hated it. "Man, it's already been that long since that day, I hadn't realized."

"You've grown up nicely, Ichigo Kurosaki." Rukia said with a slight smile on her face. "Just make sure you get your armband from the front desk and then she'll send you home. I'll meet you at school in the morning, I got paper work and a little bit of ass kissing to do."

"The big wigs back in Soul Society?" Ichigo said as he stood up and stretched.

"No, just the Captain Commander. Even though he didn't have to, he still accepted my nomination for Captaincy of this squad. I suspect he'll be disappointed I resorted to recruiting you first instead of killing the hollow myself." She laughed again as she imagined the Captain Commander's face for that conversation to come. "But it's okay, I can make him understand."

"I'd hate to think you couldn't." Ichigo said, voice trembling with sarcasm. "I better get going and turn this in, we can resume this conversation tomorrow."

"Goodnight boy." Rukia said as a way to dismiss him.

Ichigo didn't hear the door click shut behind him, only stared at the envelope in his hand as if it held his hopes and dreams inside it.

/-\ /-\ /-\

"So you're the new recruit huh?" The receptionist asked, a nicely put together woman with pink hair. She smiled as she took the form from Ichigo.

"That's me, Ichigo Kurosaki." He maintained a brisk tone and a steeling of his neck. Luckily, she wasn't dressed in a manner that invited staring.

"Here's your armband," she replied, handing the sandal brown object over to him. It even read squad 13 on it, neat. "Just affix it to your arm and it'll always be there whenever in your spirit form."

"Handy little thing isn't it?" He put it on without too much difficulty. "How's it look?"

"You look fine." She said, her tone taking on a certain dreamy quality as she started to color a little. She fully colored when Ichigo's stern look revealed her gaffe. "It's fine! Really!"

"Okay, okay, don't blow a gasket." He sighed, before remembering the next part of his order. "So how do I get home?"

"Luckily for you, since you're a human, you don't have to stay in your spirit form all the time. Isn't that great?" She smiled, biting back a nervous hiccup as he decided to look at the door as if he was going to go back home the long way. "Anyways, it's a lot like waking up from a dream, just focus on your body and will yourself back home. It's something the Captains all came up with for the human members of the Squads."

"Is that right?" He hadn't meant to say that out loud and didn't even flinch at her cheerful nod. "Oh well, I suppose I have a lot of sleep to look forward too."

"Just remember the Captain will be meeting you at your school so you don't want to be late or make her wait."

Ichigo waved his hand in acknowledgment before closing his eyes and rapidly fading from view.

Once he was out of sight, the perky receptionist sighed, realizing that she had blown it with another new recruit.

"And he was just my type too." She lamented, sighing even as she thought of Ichigo and his brilliant hair.

"Who isn't your type?" A random Soul Reaper asked from across the room.

Yeah, she was going to be red the rest of the night.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Morning arrived with little fanfare, and Ichigo found his ascension into being a Soul Reaper didn't really change much of anything. He did note that someone had fixed his window, for which he was grateful since it got cold during the night. Deciding to skip the shop this morning, he decided to sit down for a quick breakfast with his sisters before departing on the straight path to school.

There were perks to no longer being human, such as not having to run around the roundabout tunnels just to go to school. No two ways about it, tacking on an extra couple of minutes to his commute to and from classes was always a bitch and half. But it wasn't like he was supposed to be worrying about his school work anymore.

Just have you gotten yourself into this time, Ichigo Kurosaki?

"Hey Ichigo," Tatsuki said just as Ichigo darted past her and into the schoolyard.

"Oh hey, what's up?" Ichigo asked, even as he hopped over her opening kick aimed at his stomach.

"Nothing," she said, growling in concentration as she pulled back and threw another kick, this one much faster than before.

"So you're attacking me because?" He asked, slipping past the kick and pushing off her shoulder to hasten his escape from her immediate area.

"Because Honsho isn't here." She took a wide stance and raised her left arm defensively. "And you were a part of my shame yesterday. I will clean my honor!"

"You need to watch less anime girl, seriously." Ichigo just put his hands on his hips and shook his head. He ruffled his hair for a second before he too took a fighting stance. "What the hell, I got time to kill."

"Don't think just because you beat up a bunch of shitty gangsters that you can stand on the same battlefield as me." She said, smirking viciously.

"Tatsuki?"

"Yeah?"

"Be less of a nerd please."

"I don't want to hear that from you!"

They had a attracted a small crowd, even a few teachers, by this point. The best female, and overall, fighter and the best male fighter were about to throw down. In a second of stillness, Ichigo and Tatsuki held their poses, before they both shot forward with what could be called peak human speed, exchanging seven punches each in the span of a breath. None of the blows landed, though neither cared about that.

"Not bad, Kurosaki!" Tatsuki said, hopping back and dancing on the balls of her feet. "You've been training!"

"I've been on a couple training arcs since we last fought." Ichigo replied, slipping forward as he kept his eye on her. Tatsuki Arisawa wasn't just a ferocious fighter, she was highly skilled and strong as an ox.

"Let's see the fruits of your labor then!" She said with a roar, ripping forward with a sweeping kick that snapped forward like a whip.

Ichigo jumped over the kick, before lashing out with a kick of his own to prevent her from following up. Pushing off her ensuing, Ichigo threw himself back and landed lightly on his feet, dancing a little to ensure he had his balance again. He came forward swiftly, countering her punch with one of his own, even as slipped and caught her fist.

"Seems we're on the same wavelength." Tatsuki said with a wild grin on her face, revealing that she too had done much the same as Ichigo.

"Just a bit." He said, even as the released their captured hand and stepped into another punch that was summarily blocked in much the same manner.

"My compliments to your teacher then." She said with a laugh even as they traded punches, slipping out of the way if need be.

"Careful, you might get a little too into this and lose." He said, even as he felt the slight pressure coming from Tatsuki. '_So she's tapping into her reiryoku unconsciously, eh? No wonder I always lost._'

"That's hardly a worry when you can't even hit me." Not like she could hit him right now either, but that didn't matter.

"I wouldn't hit you, Inoue would blow a gasket." That was mostly a lie, she was far too nice for that. Still, he kicked out at her legs, forcing her back a few steps.

"Orihime doesn't care, just as long as we don't break any of our bones or die." She retook her stance, rotating her left arm to keep the muscles loose so it didn't seize up mid-fight.

"Speaking of Inoue, isn't that Honsho over by her?" He said, putting his hand to his forehead as if to shield his eyes from the early morning sunlight confirm what he was seeing.

"Why that sneaky bitch!" She whirled around to see Orihime standing off to herself, watching intently with a bright look on her face. She quickly hopped back, ducking under Ichigo's scything kick, that left a big whoosh of displaced air as it flew by.

"You fell for it!" He crowed, hopping forward and spinning forward, using the rotation of his body to propel himself forward into a flying left knee that collided with Tatsuki's guard and sent her flying back.

"That was dirty!" She said with an indignant cry, back-flipping once she was certain that she wouldn't collide with anything.

"Not like we agreed to fight honorably." He said with a shrug, relaxing a little. Internally, he was focusing on his reiryoku, feeling the power deep within his soul begin to stir as probed it slightly. '_Seems like I can use it even as a human. This will be fun._' He smirked and laughed a little to himself.

"It should be understood, you fool." She started to charge forward when an intense wave of pressure stopped her short. '_Bloodlust? No, this is too benign for that, then what is it?_' Her head ducked for a second from the intense pressure, taking her eyes from her opponent for that miniscule amount of time.

She looked up to see Ichigo's fist an inch from her face. He was wearing that damn smirk like he had just won and it pissed her off. However, that mysterious feeling that hit her was shaking her composure just a little.

"N-no way." She shook her head as he turned and walked away. "This isn't over!"

"Of course it is, because your next opponent showed up and I couldn't dream of making her wait any longer." He didn't turn around, but he raised his left arm, pointing with his thumb that there was something behind Tatsuki that she needed to pay attention to at this very moment.

Tatsuki dove to the side, dodging the sudden pounce from Chizuru, who stood up promptly and giggled darkly.

"So, I hear today is the day of our anticipated match-up." Chizuru managed to catch the light just right with her glasses, adding an unnerving effect to her appearance.

"If that is how it's to be, then fine. I'll get Ichigo later." Tatsuki stood up and took a fighting stance.

"Remember to dress nicely, he likes his girls to look classy as fuck." Head games were in full bloom, as Chizuru tried to distract Tatsuki for just a moment.

"That wasn't what I meant!" Dealing with her mom's open campaigning for the Kurosaki lad had only weakened Tatsuki's defense to this line of needling. She at least didn't color, which showed a decent amount of self discipline.

"So you say~" Chizuru laughed, taking a wide stance and making a gesture towards Tatsuki.

Well, whatever was to happen would be something Ichigo would have to learn later, he had classes to attend until Rukia came to pull him out anyways.

/-\ /-\ /-\

"Kurosaki." Rukia said as she yanked open the door to his classroom with a swift jerk. "Grab your crap and come along."

"Right away, Captain." Ichigo didn't care about explaining to his teacher what was going on; when you were being bossed around by a woman whose head height was only slightly past your belly button, you do as they say.

"Excuse me what's going on?" The teacher, who had been distracted with writing a complex formula on the blackboard, asked with a very peeved tone of voice. The kind of voice that will get you in trouble when you use in the wrong situation.

"Hi, Captain Rukia Kuchiki, the Soul Reaper in charge of this pissant little shithole you call a town. Ichigo here has been discovered to hold great power in his soul, and is thus being called upon to protect all of you. As such, he has no more time to waste on these classes, except what time I will allow him to indulge such a childish venture." Rukia said, with only a slight amount of vexation in her voice. She also free-form cracked the knuckles in both of her hands.

"Do you honestly expect me to be-" The teacher could not finish that as a red bolt of reiryoku sizzled past the side of her face. Face dripping with sweat, she turned to see the smoking hole in the wall.

"School's out kids, everyone go home now." Rukia said, glancing at the stunned class and waving them out of the room.

"Didn't even singe her with it, impressive." Ichigo said, turning his head to look down at her. She was dressed pretty casually for a captain, hell, she almost looked like a student here. "Decided to leave the funeral close back at base?"

"This is just a gigai," she explained, turning from the terrified woman and deciding to begin the lecture early. "It's a false body for people who don't have one for real. This way, I don't have to pop in through walls and spook everything in the immediate area."

"Sounds pretty nifty." He said, contemplating the appearance of the gigai. "Mom always said Urahara got up to some wacky shit, but I didn't think it was stuff like this."

"Soul Society usually has these for such an occasion, but it's a pain in the ass to go back there for this, especially with such a convenient place ready to dispense such a thing on the cheap." She did a little curtsy for effect. "You wouldn't believe this isn't a human body if I didn't tell you it wasn't first."

"Sounds like I got a lot to learn about," he said, as they made their way out of the classroom. "By the way, how'd you do that bitching fireball?"

"That was kido." She snickered a little at his blank expression. "Basically, magic you can do. Since I'm pretty good at it, I can even do it without saying the name. Though, between you and me, if I said the name I would have killed your teacher."

"Soul Reapers got a lot of tricks don't they." They had exited the school and it was time to figure out where they were headed. "So, uh, we're we going?"

"I have an empty field cleared out for us to train, it's only a couple blocks from here." She held up a finger. "I'm going to teach you a couple methods for quickly shedding your body in a safe location, and then I'm going to help you brush up on your sword work. Against small fry, you're fine as you are, but I want you ready for anything. We should be on kido by the end of the week, and that's even sprinkling in patrols and what not."

"A lot of work ahead of me," he said, falling into a purposeful silence.

"Look on the bright side, at least you're starting on the job instead of wasting months being lectured on crap that doesn't matter." She tried to be nice about it, but her own experience with the Shinigami Academy was less than stellar. "This way, you can measure your growth against real live hollows instead of waiting forever to even fight one."

"Yeah, I suppose that is better." Though the suppose was only because he had just witnessed what happens when you question his new tutor's authority.

/-\ /-\ /-\

"Okay , now that we're here, let's talk about you turning into a Soul Reaper from your body." Rukia said, with Ichigo seated cross legged on the ground. "It's pretty much impossible without some kind of medium, of which we have several. First, there's the soul transfer glove, a snazzy little number available in a wide variety of colors, but only good if you have someone helping out to use it on you. If I hit you while wearing it, out would pop your soul body dressed in that nifty black outfit. If you tried it on yourself, well, your hand is liable to get stuck in your head and we don't know how to fix that."

"Okay, so that's likely out, what else you got?" Ichigo asked, grimacing just a fraction of an inch at the idea of his hand stuck in his heads.

"Next up is soul candy, vaguely sweet and leaves your soul feeling refreshed upon exiting the body. Now, these little guys used to pack an artificial soul called a Mod, which would move the body and have its own will and such. Mostly to be used with all the excess gigai laying around to bolster our ranks, they were mostly discontinued and destroyed due to ethical ramifications and they were too wild to control. Some of the original still exist, Urahara keeps a small collection of these for entertainment purposes and the fact that the newer soul candy's personalities can be abrasive for some." She paused and rolled the pill she had in her hand, before bending over and picking up a small lion doll that looked pretty beat up. "This little dude's name is Kon, and he's going to be a demonstration for how it works. This is pretty much a gigai or your body after your soul leaves." With that, she tossed the pill into the doll's mouth and pinched it closed, before tilting it back to simulate swallowing.

"So what, that doll is going to come to life?" Ichigo really shouldn't sound so doubtful, but he couldn't help it. It was just so ridiculous.

"That's right!" A male voice answered back, as the doll leaped down from Rukia's hands and stood in front of Ichigo and pointing a very pitiful looking claw at the surprised human. "Kon-sama is here to teach you how to- wait, what the hell am I in?"

"I'm not carrying a gigai around for you," Rukia said arms crossed with a stern look on her face.

"So cold big sis!" Had the body he was in had functioning tear ducts, Kon would have burst into tears.

"Stop whining and get back to the lecture." Rukia's tone promised violence if the order wasn't followed.

"Right." Kon turned to look at Ichigo again, pointing what would be a thumb at himself. "Listen up rookie! The name's Kon and I specially is leg combat and speed! I can also keep you in contact with other Soul Reapers if need be! And I have a great personality all the ladies just love, so if you need a better social life, pop me into your mouth and leave it all to Kon-sama!"

"What." He wasn't going to pop that thing into his mouth to transform was he? Ichigo looked kind of strained at the prospect.

"The only real downside to modern soul candy is that it's one use, hence why it has very basic personalities since it is not only faster and easier to make, but less of a hang-up morally because it just poofs off to the ether instead of being stuck as a candy." Rukia tossed him a container, which Ichigo caught reflexively. It was adorned with a certain white rabbit that Ichigo knew too well from Yuzu's love of the animal in question.

"Ch-Chappy?" His little sister would flip out over it.

"Yeah, I like rabbits." Rukia shrugged before slipping back into the lecture. "The bad news for you is that soul candy is the quickest method for soul removal from your body and it will ensure your body is in a safe place instead laying in a gutter somewhere. Pop out one and give it back, I paid good money for that container and no way I'm letting a bozo like you take off with it."

"I wouldn't have been able to keep Yuzu away from it." He muttered darkly to himself even as he complied with her instructions. He chucked the container back, which was caught easily and stored away.

"Don't pop it just yet now. The final method for you to become a Soul Reaper is a badge for your human body to wear. It's basically like the one you got last night and it's mainly for when you're at home and need to transform quickly." Rukia pulled it out and threw it to Ichigo. "Just affix it to your arm, then run your thumb along it and shout release. Boom, you're a Soul Reaper and your body will carry out a short order to make it look like you're asleep. This is also to extend the amount of soul candy you'll have so you don't run out."

"That makes sense." He quickly affixed it to his arm and then thought of something. "Why don't I just stay a Soul Reaper all the time then?"

"Your body is still alive, if you don't return to it periodically, you'd use up all your reiryoku for one. For two, you're simulating the death of your body to allow your soul to come out and play. You screw around with this and you'll die for real and I don't know what happens when that occurs and I don't want to find out." She said, laying it out for him. "Plus, returning to your body makes it stronger, so we're going to train you threefold: you use up a lot of reiryoku, go back to your body to recoup it, come back with more. Your body gets stronger, which will also naturally increase your reserves. And thus comes to the best part of our little exercise: we'll train your body too, thus increasing your power even more. And even better, when you're a Soul Reaper, your body is resting so you won't even be tired from it!"

"That's demented. Awesome, but demented." He looked at the soul candy and rolled it in his fingers. What would it taste like? He hoped it wasn't mint, he didn't like mint at all.

"I know, but it's the best way to prepare you for the future." She sighed, even as she popped out her own soul candy. "I want you prepared for anything, there's too much coincidence for our meeting to be just because your dad forgot to tell you how to suppress your reiatsu. Shit's going to go down and you're going to be there, kicking what have comes out of the woodwork's ass. Pop that pill and let's begin." She popped it into her mouth, her gigai scrambling off in short order.

Ichigo complied, popping the candy with easy and swallowing it in one go. There was a surge of energy and suddenly, he was back in his Soul Reaper body. As his real body scampered off, he did a bit of flexing, mostly out of habit.

"Yeah, don't stop doing that. You should feel like this is your real body, which will help you grasp the concepts faster than if you try to retrain yourself. In fact, this is probably the worst problem I and many of my fellow captains run into with humans turned Soul Reapers: they're being trained by people who haven't had to live with a body in possibly centuries if not more. Thus, they require so much more time to get simple things because it goes against how they know their body to move." Rukia held out her right hand, a swarm of reishi condensing into a zanpakuto, a plain ordinary looking blade. Its edge only had the lightest of bites, but only an idiot would think that was a good thing. She flipped around and caught it by the blade, fingers pressing on the side to keep it from gnawing into her palm. "Take it, this is what we're practicing with."

"Ok, I mean, I've got my own, but you're the captain." He took it anyways and inspected it, finding it to be perfectly average. "And nifty trick too."

"Thanks, I'll teach you it some time." She smirked a little, before forming another for herself. "I figure it is best for you to train with this, because we don't really know what's going to happen if your zanpakuto changes size to something smaller upon release. Secondly, I don't want your soul form to do the training for abusing the size and length of your sword, because the carry over might as well be nil compared to your body learning it. Let's say it's mostly muscle memory and leave it at that for now, the real answer is a bit more complex than that. Thirdly, this will make the fight that much more dangerous for you, and thus your growth will increase more as you discover new abilities in the heat of battle. Lastly, this will prepare you for any battles to come, no point in getting killed by a hollow because you don't know how to sword fight."

"Sounds good," Ichigo said, taking a few practice swings. "Let's get this party going then."

"Just go with the flow, I won't hurt you... too much." She laughed a little, face contorting a little into one hell of a nasty smirk.

The two vanished from sight, taking the coming battle into the realm of high speed.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Ichigo faceplanted into the dirt, bringing this latest spar to an end. Without any dramatics, he rolled over onto his back and looked up at Rukia staring down at him. He sighed, softening her gaze just a little.

"How long was that last one?" He needed to have some feeling of accomplishment.

"45 seconds, but you beat yourself this time. I didn't expect you to be able to overload the reishi like that." She reached down and picked him up without a further word, and inspected him for damage. "Good, seems only the blast wave hit you."

"Didn't feel good." He muttered, only for her grab the front of his uniform and pull him down to face her.

"Look kid, decaying reishi are no joke. If you get enough of that on you, you'd die an incredibly agonizing death on par with shit the gods would usually toss out on the people who really fuck up." She let go of him and regained her composure. "You're not invincible, okay? So don't go thinking you have nothing to lose."

"...Sorry." And he was, if only because the outburst had been sparked by him nearly blowing himself straight to hell. He hoped it wasn't the Christian one, he heard that sucked a lot.

"It's fine, it's not like you knew." She shook her head. "That's another thing they never tell them, not until they're ready to kick them out the door. So much of the retraining is simply getting them to stop being stupid and diving headlong into death. Trust in me Ichigo, I will keep you safe until you do not need me to watch over you. When that time comes, you will have a partner who will never betray, because your spirit and theirs will share much the same desire." She patted the zanpakuto on her hip. "You'll learn this girl's name too once you're ready. The bond you'll form with your zanpakuto is a wonderful thing, don't try to exploit it and you'll be stronger than anyone."

"Mm." He nodded his head along, before stretching a bit. "If you want to have one more go before we switch training, I'm up for it."

"Heh, sure thing." She laughed a little, and despite how down he had felt about not being able to hang with her, the sound of it made him feel just a little bit better.

/-\ /-\ /-\

Beyond the senses of the people of this world, up in a lonely part of the sky, a hole of the deepest black opened for just a moment. And then it was gone as quickly as it had come, but it left its mark there. Something was only testing to see if the connection could be made, so next time, something would come from it...

End Chapter 2

Teaser for Chapter 3 "As If Your God Has Passed You By":

In this world, lived a blighted people, infected with a sickness innate only to this world. It was a sickness of the mind, that infirmed the moral centers and blocked the rational thought. The religious would claim that it was because God had turned away from them and it was their uniform understanding of this that destroyed their ability to hope.

This was a world that envied the dead, not mourn them. A world that the unthinkable happened with a greater frequency to the despair of those who tried live with hope in their hearts and happiness in their eyes. Tragedies had choked still the relief of comedy, the sound of laughter almost a forgotten, distant sound.

Life was to be suffered until you were granted the nadir kiss of death and released back into the yawning void from whence you came.

Without hyperbola, the real pain of this disease was how quickly one could become infected by it and not even realize it. It was akin to a very specific kind of madness, one where you were aware of what was happening and approved. No one could pinpoint the signs because the onset of the disease was so swift that study was impossible.

Nothing was tolerable and every single offense committed in the vicinity of the afflicted only brought a sudden outburst of violence. The only mercy for the people of this blighted world, was that the spread slowed down in large groups of people and thus large urban areas only found themselves with small patches of the infected, who were corralled and locked away for everyone's safety. But of course, the small areas, the little side towns and suburbs basically took it from behind with no lube.

Many who were attacked did nothing more than exist, they just happened to be there at the time and place of the madness kicking in.

Such an experience was not foreign to Inoue Orihime. Her parents had attempted to throw her into an incinerator for being born when neither wanted anymore kids. Luckily, she had an older brother named Sora who resisted the affliction and ran away to raise the poor girl. Though isolated, she grew up loved and happy, a rarity these days.

It comes as no surprise that her brother was killed due to injuries received when hit by a car, sadly waiting for an ambulance that never came. Alone, but thankfully forgotten, Orihime tried to rebuild her life by going to school. Things progressed without incident until age fourteen, where she was accosted by jealous older girls, whom felt threatened by the young girl's blossoming figure.

As was too often the case, Orihime did nothing to provoke what was to happen to her, she just happened to exist too much for someone's liking.

Author note: That's down. Chapter 3 to come with more characters. Orihime gets screen time in this one! Be there.


End file.
